Daily 2014

400mm out Westbound 7500 rounds the bend in the Boyer River canyon to Woodbine Iowa, number three in the siding....the more important train headed eastbound will be coal straight from the coal fields of Wyoming or the refrigerated out of the fruit belt of southern California... the battery on the camera is going dead midway through the shoot add to that its cold and just plain crappy out.

Not what I started out looking for 7500 came into sight midway around the corner, closing speed of 75mph we are lucky to find a crossing and get set up, the camera goes dead midway to the second frame....

Ashland has quite a few wall murals so if you are in the area swing downtown and look around, lots of small towns we drive thru have wonderful wall art of some kind, maybe it's city sponsored graffiti or a wonderful painting of a forgotten place in time.... we enjoy searching for these across America.

Another dad crop.......but alas ye mate'y yesterdays was full size........ Have a great evening....such a late post 5PM!

A clearing of the lake from our point of view with the lens at 100mm. The light is always changing as is the focal point.....plus just add the serious wow factor of nature in action and one could understand the difficulty of getting a great image from a place like this.

Please visit your Refuge soon, sign the guest book as some of these places get there funding by public participation.

Thanks for the great comments and questions....TGIF! Hi Kristy....see i can come up with those crazy wildlife images too.

Only the trumpeter Swans are left as the lake clears itself of Geese, another mass lift-off that send the lake to the sky. The shadow the wave of geese cast over us is much like a solar eclipse....with lots of noise.

If you have not experienced this in your lifetime go soon.....its something you don't soon forget.

I have put a new video up in my video bin on my homepage.....the geese make a tornado right before your eyes.....AMAZING....truly, go look at it!

Awarded Second Place in the "Nature Category" n4c.us in March 2013, submitted through the Omaha Camera Club.

Went down to Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge yesterday......lots to see!

These are Canadian Geese, there were over six hundred trumpeter swans too....

Just before the mass lift-off there seems to be a lot of discussion in the pond about just that......then from almost total silence they start and it sounds like a freight train coming toward you, the sky goes dim and all you hear is the birds wings flapping, totally astonishing.

Its forty degrees out and the wind is out of the south at ten to twenty MPH.

So we got two goose bombs to the windshield that was the extent of the crap.......literally, i too though it would be everywhere. Also there were no impact deaths from inflight collisions...on our part of the lake, the carnage is laying all over the place though, some caused impact craters two feet in diameter, surely would have killed a human on impact.....in all my years flying thats the scariest thing to go through, a bird strike.

Went out to Chalco Hills tonight to see how the wildlife was doing and ran across this. There were quite a few types of birds flying and the numbers are way up from the last trip out. We will be heading to Squaw Creek here soon the migration should commence any day now.

Its still cold out but we have edged past are hard freeze date with no serious stretch of below zero this winter season.

A conversion to B&W for our camera club contest this month. Weather is the subject and i will enter this in the assigned monochrome category....it is a print competition as well so i had to put it up to get a print .....let me know if the processing works for you. When i posted the color version of this i got a lot of comments about the bottom of the image being dark so let me know, i have quite a winning streak going there....i helping to teach them as well and they all do so well, it is a tuff place to win.

I gave my presentation last week at the camera club and it went well.....i hope they power vacation as i do.

Springfield Nebraska, the cold front advances across Nebraska the daylong siege of thunderstorms are pushed southward for Texas to enjoy tomorrow. The sunset explodes on the horizon behind me as the wind drives hard at my back.

Rising quickly over a horizon of fall foliage the sun reflects the forest of of color that surrounds Dells Millpond as Bridge Creek flows across the dam. The aroma of hickory bacon frying on the millers stove escapes the open windows of the Mill while the hound bays he has treed the raccoon where the river enters the millpond just a short distance away. The bald eagle circles above as I sip my last swig of coffee, i'm amazed that the algae has formed an image of an Indian crossing the pond below the dam. Our Winter journey deep into badger country brought us by Dells Mill again. While collecting my images a gentle smoke started out of the vent pipe from the wooden stove in the store. I sent my trusty sidekick in to scout it out, Master Miller Gus had stopped in to work a bit, a wonderful Mill with an amazing story chock full of American History....would be a wonderful place to retire.

Thanks again go out to the staff at St.Cecelia Cathedral in Omaha Nebraska for allowing the Omaha Camera Club access to all those wonderful flower displays during the Flower Festival last weekend.

I thought the rays of sun on yesterdays Image I call "Snake pit" were cool too. The sun is there only about a week then it's to many degrees above the horizon and is cut off by the road above......cool huh.

Found this on a bridge abutment next to the police department. The railroad tracks run just on the other side, I am looking for an easy way to get to an old trestle up the tracks a piece.....Heavily posted and being in broad daylight I curbed my thirst for the ultimate Union Pacific Railroad shot for the day....I'll be back!

Thanks for the wonderful comments on the Image I call "Idle Time" we were down on the riverfront that was flooded by the Missouri River a year ago to see how the area reclamation and rehabilitation is coming along, we saw some good progress. Omaha is a railroad town and I actively hunt for railroad images out and about the area, so more to come.

St Cecilia Cathedral here in Omaha Nebraska has it's annual flower festival all weekend long. The Omaha Camera Club got a cart blanch treatment up until the doors opened to get any Images our club members wanted....Many thanks to the great folks that work there they were quite friendly and helpful.

Look Mom.....no dad crop!!!!

Thanks for the awesome comments on my image yesterday I call "Decorated Dumpster"......got some great Images today it was warm and sunny , ice and snow with the cold returning tomorrow though.

Some of the local graffiti here in Omaha Nebraska. Our midwest town all but promotes these in certain areas so that the city can call it urban art and even has a contest each year to find the best people. Some of the locations are known as art centers.....this happens to be a test wall outside one of the firms that does them for hire. While most are interesting to look at the messages sometimes can be deplorable and or graphic in nature.

Single shot dad crop for y'all!

Thanks for the great comments on my Image I call "Changing Time" yesterday, that was quite a storm that blew in and turned those windmills of western Nebraska around.

Its Friday,Yea! Thanks for letting me know your thoughts on this Image, have a great day.

The last flight fly's into the sunset toward the still moving Platte River.

Tomorrow I post the crazy sunset that develops before our eyes Friday night....it was staggering.....thanks for all the wonderful comments on the Image I call "Downtown Lights" I enter it in this months photo contest at our local camera club ....the category is night shots.

This is the start of an incredible sunset we chased out of Omaha. Trying to find some clear ground or a reflection so close to sunset we stop just south of town in the river bottom....light fading fast the evening sky is about to go crazy.

I am on the edge of a very populated road and people are honking or yelling just behind me as they drive by.....they to were watching too!

This is one of the Holiday window displays in the Midtown Crossing area of Omaha Nebraska. I tried to make it look like an ornament as a thumbnail.....the buildings reflecting on the glass are the mid-rise buildings across the street all lit up for the Holidays.

Thanks for the comments on the Image I call "Sound Of Music" an image I actually went and found Christmas Eve....Hope your day today is blessed.

Bitterly cold the town seemed empty except for the everstreaming sounds of praise and glory coming from the open door of the Orpheum as I passed by searching for long exposure night images of downtown Omaha Nebraska. The Orpheum is over a hundred years old and still has live broadway theater, performance rentals and children's dance productions....and of course Caroling.

Just a quick note to say thanks to all the wonderful people who stop here to look at some of my images this year.....your comments help me get better, thank you for sharing your work.....not only have I got better at Image composition but processing as well, wishing you all a great year in digital photography!

My Image yesterday "Log Cabin Lake".....a dad crop from Wisconsin can be found in Marinette County about a mile south of Hwy. 8 on Lily Lake road.

The kids back in school the old boat dock makes it through to another fall season. A lone loon wrestles the remaining crawfish on the lakeshore sending ripples across the lakes fall reflections.

Have a wonderful day and thanks for all your comments on yesterdays image I call "Omaha Blues." Jr and I never seem to collect images together although we rode in the same vehicle to downtown last night I struck out on my own... I was trying to find that new iconic image location other photographers will want in their portfolio.

This is the third image from our sunset last week. As the sun set upon the horizon the golden glow lights up the sky, this is the start of the sunset, my image "Rings of Fire" was shot after this then the geese flew over later in the sunset and I took the image I call "Sunset Flight".....quite a night.

Thanks so much for looking at my images and commenting....our Winter storm is upon us and we soon will be shoveling....Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!

She sit in line at the food court while her mate jets around the yard with his counterpart...unhappy she has had to come out of the big blue spruce we call "the condo" her mate is fending off another suitors charge.

Most always her mate caters her food from the food court, her only time out normally is shortly after sunset when it is to dark to get a nice image. We have snow now and the temperatures are not climbing above freezing for the near future, the food chain lines up at the food court....size mostly wins, she is slightly bigger than a sparrow.

Thanks for the wonderful comments on my image "Rings of Fire" yesterday, that was quite a sunset, what a memory!

Have a great day....we get a round of measurable snow tonight and Wednesday.

A festive view of midtown at rush hour. We got done last night at the lakeshore and wandered through town to get home. The lights around town are starting to glow, the high temperatures we have had for the past two weeks have allowed people more time in the outdoors.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments on my "Sunset Flight" image yesterday....Have a wonderful day!

This was the only set of waterfowl that came over tonight and I was semi set up for their movement across the sky. Downtown Omaha in the distance the lake is starting to ice over, our low temperature the other night of four degrees above zero has placed big patches of ice in the middle of the lake just behind me, the geese have commandeered the floating islands to roost for the night.

Our high temperature today was fifty four degrees....one of the best sunsets I have seen in a while.....just staggering!

Hope you enjoy this image, my neck is hurting from being down on the rocky icy lakeshore for an hour or so...Please leave me a comment, thanks for all the wonderful comments on my B&W Gristmill yesterday!

Yankee Smith Mill is one of the many buildings in the Shoal Creek Living History Museum inside Hodge Park, Kansas City Kansas.

Were on the downhill side of the week .... Hunting some holiday lights here inOmaha the next few nights.

Wow....thanks for all the wonderful comments on "Hodgson Spring Falls" I worked hard on that image. I have found these black and white images are a bit of work as well please let me know what you think of this image, Thanks again, hope the Holiday Season is upon you and yours, be merry!

Another remake with my new processing skills. The same crop as the other one I did, the blue tint to the water is so much more apparent in this one. Its the small attention to details that bring out the best color.

One of my grandfathers died onboard this ship as it sat in the Staten Island New York shipyards, he was a carpenters mate. He did however own a camera and took some stunning images off this vessel as it took him around the World. It is now dry-docked in Wilmington North Carolina.

Thanks for all those wonderful "Dad Crop" comments on yesterdays Hodgson Mill image.....I put things where I feel they should be, a crop is just another tool in the belt of composition....use it! So leave me a message and let me know how this Dad Crop looks....thanks!

30 Something.....remember when that was a hit.... Paul Jr. is thirty today, I was going to do a photo of him in his younger years but thought twice, I know deep inside he just loves these old gristmills so I reset this shot from one I had already processed and what a change! In fact we have been to this one multiple times. Next time we all go I think I will get a shot of all of us sitting on the wall.

Thanks son for all the wonderful times, I'm blessed...... looking forward to you guys coming in town.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Watched what seemed like a few college courses on CreativeLive this weekend....So the look and feel of my images will be changing quite drastically from now on, thanks Paul Jr. for the great advice to make time for the great workshops that were free this weekend. I think I now understand how to do lightroom better! This is the first application of what I was able to retain.